I was thinking about the words pronumeral and pronoun; I realized they both share a prefix, and are both proxies for numerals and nouns. I was wondering if there is any connection between the words since proxy also begins with pro. If proxy is unrelated, is there any reason for the two words to start with pro?

I've never heard the word 'pronumeral' before. It seems to mean 'variable' in mathematics. Where have you used the word before?
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MitchFeb 21 '12 at 22:57

@Mitch I'm a mathematician and a programmer, so I use the word all the time.
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annonymouslyFeb 22 '12 at 1:15

@annonymously: does it mean anything -different- from variable? Is it a variable of type integer?
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MitchFeb 22 '12 at 2:12

A pronumeral is any letter that replaces a number (or other object like a vector), that is used to generalise a formula or equation, so that it can be valid using any appropriate object.
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annonymouslyFeb 22 '12 at 2:22